'Where Was Rss When We Faced Death?'

The RSS may call them "Hindu cowards" but for the 155 hostages on board the hijacked IC 814 the utterance has come as the ranting of a group which was unable to provide any solution when they were held captive for nearly a week in Kandahar. They are upset that an organisation which prides itself as the caretaker of the Hindus was mum throughout the episode and then chose the days after their release to ridicule their physical inability to overpower the hijackers. "Where were its karsevaks when we had death staring in our faces?" asks Satish Sahani, 38, a hardware businessman in Delhi. "Let them fight at least one real battle before lecturing others on bravery. Shouting slogans against Pakistan and egging on soldiers in Kargil from the comfort of their homes are just not enough."

It’s the BJP-led government, backed by the RSS, which gets the maximum flak. Most hostages feel the Hindu nationalist party showed itself as inept in handling the crisis. "The RSS which cried itself hoarse supporting the nuclear tests should have also advised the government on how best to tackle the hijackers," says Ramesh Kumar, another victim. What hurts him the most is the RSS’ painting of their relatives as undignified for putting pressure on the government to end the crisis quickly. "To call them lacking in self-dignity is adding insult to injury," says Kumar. "If they hadn’t protested, the government would have delayed reacting to the situation even further." The hostages see RSS chief Prof Rajendra Singh and Prime Minister Vajpayee as "emotionless men who remained criminally unconcerned" during the incident. "What do these men who never married know about the terror we went through?" enquires Daman Kumar Soni. "Our wives and children could’ve been orphaned any minute." From the reactions, it seems the RSS blundered in making the "Hindu cowards" statement-unwittingly blurting out its own deep-seated misconceptions.